The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°Hay, Oliver Perry
Science
The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°
Hay, Oliver Perry
Paleontology -- North America; Paleontology -- Pleistocene; Vertebrates, Fossil
7. _Montreal._—In 1863 (Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, p. 919), W. E. Logan
announced the finding of some bones of a whale at the Mile-End quarries,
Montreal, on a slight ridge, “where are found stratified sand and gravel
holding boulders and shells in the lower part.” In corresponding clays
in a neighboring brickyard was found a pelvis of a seal, _Phoca
grœndlandica_. In 1895 (Canad. Rec. Sci., vol. VI, p. 351), Dr. J. W.
Dawson reported the discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of another
white whale at Montreal. This was found in brick clay, near Papineau
Road. The locality is said by Dawson to be about 100 feet above the St.
Lawrence; the bones were in the clay at a depth of 22 feet. The clay
itself was probably deposited at a depth of 50 to 80 fathoms. This is
said by Dawson to correspond approximately with a well-marked shore-line
at Montreal, found at a height of about 470 feet above the sea and with
the old sea-beach at Smith’s Falls as related on page 17. In 1916, Mr.
Edward Ardley, assistant curator of Redpath Museum, reported (Canad.
Rec. Sci., vol. IX, pp. 490–493) the discovery of a large part of the
skeleton of a white whale, supposed to belong to _Delphinapterus
leucas_, at Montreal East. The skeleton was buried in Leda clay about 15
feet above St. Lawrence River. It was 10.5 feet long. The cranium and
lower jaw were secured, besides parts of the trunk and limbs.
8. _Rivière du Loup, Temiscouata County._—In his work, “Canadian Ice
Age,” 1894, on page 268, Dr. J. W. Dawson reported that bones of _Beluga
catodon_ (_Delphinapterus leucas_) had been found at the place
mentioned. It is not probable that parts sufficient for making a
definite determination were secured, nor did Dawson give any details
regarding the geological conditions connected with the discovery.
Doubtless the remains were found in marine deposits of one of the
terraces.
9. _Metis, Rimouski County._—In the work just cited (p. 269), Dawson
stated that in the summer of 1891 he secured a large jawbone of a whale
which had been found in digging a cellar in the shelly marl of the lower
terrace at Metis. He did not identify the species, but appears to imply
that it belonged to either the “humpback” (_Megaptera boöps_) or to one
of the finner whales (_Balænoptera_).
NEW BRUNSWICK.
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